The calendar has arranged for the Fourth of July holiday to fall on a Thursday this year, making it easier to string together days for a short vacation. And even though inflation and interest rates have kept prices high, American consumers are showing signs that they will continue to spend to commemorate the country’s Independence Day.
There will, however, be greater caution in spending compared to last year’s record spending, according to figures from the National Retail Federation (NRF). The annual survey of retailers suggests total spending will be around $9.4 billion on food and drink for the thousands of barbecues or similar culinary celebrations that 66% of the population will attend. Per person, that’s about $90.42, down 3.1% from 2023.
Shopkeepers expect that nearly one in three people celebrating the holiday will do so with products bearing patriotic symbols, from flags to T-shirts with them printed on them, as well as paper plates and cups in red, blue and white. They have been visible for weeks in clothing stores and supermarkets in anticipation of Thursday’s celebration.
Record figures at airports
The busiest times of the year are at the country’s airports and highways, which have been seeing a surge in travel for several days now. The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) expects more than 32 million people to pass through airport security checkpoints from Thursday, July 27 through July 8. That’s a 5.4% increase over last year’s comparable travel volumes.
Coinciding with a drop in airline ticket prices in recent months, following sharp increases in recent years, on June 23, the TSA detected movements of 2.99 million people, the largest number in a single day. Last year alone, more than 2.8 million travelers were counted on one day on the eve of July 4. At the time of writing, there have already been five days in 2024 with more than that number.
“We expect this summer to be our busiest ever,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a statement, noting that peak travel times typically occur during the holidays. Pekoske says the public is on the move, “which is a sign of a healthy economy.”
And those who don’t travel by air are traveling by road. The American Automobile Association (AAA) expects 70.9 million travelers for distances of more than 50 miles during this week-long celebration. This year, the calculations are made for a longer period of time than other years and a 5% increase in people on the road is projected compared to 2023. It is also an 8% increase compared to 2019, the period of regular trend before the pandemic caused intense changes in consumption patterns.
AAA Travel Vice President Paula Twidale explains that this holiday period is going to be the busiest of all because of the flexibility that remote work provides to extend vacations around Independence Day.
On the road, motorists will pay an average of $3.50 per gallon of gasoline, slightly more than the previous three weeks because oil prices have risen above $80 per barrel. It is, however, a price slightly lower than last year and it is expected that if there are no further movements in the international markets and hurricanes do not impact production in the Gulf of Mexico and refining centers, the price of a gallon will stabilize.
There are many factors that make up a long summer that begins with some highly anticipated fireworks.
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